84 



CAPRIMULGID^. 



it is impossible to place them immediately after the 

 birds of the former family without doing violence to 

 the general arrangement. They usually lay their 

 eggs upon the bare ground without any vestige of a 

 nest, beyond a mere depression on the surface. 



GENUS XLIV.— CAPRIMULGUS A uctorum. GOATSUCKER, 



nostrum valde depressum, 

 apice adunco ; mandibula 

 itiferior apice recurvata. 



Digiti anfici basi membra- 

 nula coaliti, later ales 

 sequales; pollex gracilis, 

 versatilis. 



Beak greatly depressed, the 

 tip hooked; the lower 

 mandible with its tip re- 

 curved. 



Anterior toes connected at 

 the base by a membrane, 

 the lateral ones equal ; the 

 hinder toe slender, versar 

 tile. 



A. Cauda fur cata. A, Tail forked. 



Sp. 1. Cu. psalurus. Azara. Temm, PI. Col. 157. male; 158. 

 female. 



Ca. capite, collo corporeque supra nigricantibus nigro maculatis • 

 infra rufescente ; occipite rufo ; alls nigricantibus rufo-albo 

 variis; cauda valde furcata. 



Goatsucker with the head, neck, and body above dusky, spotted 

 with black; beneath reddish ; the occiput red; the wings dusky, 

 varied with reddish-white ; the tail very much forked. 



Scissors-tailed Goatsucker. Lath. Gen. Hist. vii. p. 348. 



Inhabits Paraguay. Distinguished from its con 

 geners by the very extraordinary conformation of its 

 tail : this part is composed of twelve feathers, the 

 two middle and the two lateral feathers being con 

 siderably elongated, the outer ones especially, which, 

 in the adult male, are several inches longer than the 



